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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 36, Number 16. 12th July 1973

Enough to Judge

Enough to Judge

All that was proved in the prosecution's case was that damage had been done while the defendants were present and for Mr Patterson that was enough "To rule otherwise", he said rejecting the defence submissions, "would mean that society had no protection against this type of demonstration." He made no reference to any need for the protection of demonstrators' rights. The rationale was that these people had attended a demonstration where violence had occurred and thus they must be punished, whether or not they were guilty of any crime.

Patterson handled the case very intelligently. After convicting all 12 defendants on both charges he sentenced each of them to one year's probation, $10 costs, $12.50 restituion and twentyfour hours community service. A very liberal sentence indeed, in contrast to his strong words a few minutes earlier. In fact, Judge Patterson, made a wise decision in imposing such light penalties. No one is going to criticise his decision when the "offenders" were punished so leniently. But now the police have the goahead they will use this law whenever they can't think of any other and the penalties will only get tougher.